London: A cheap mobile phone application that can track the precise location of passenger aircraft in the sky can be a serious terrorist threat, security experts have claimed and called for its immediate ban.

The Plane Finder AR application, developed by a British firm for the Apple iPhone and Google’s Android, allows users to point their phone at the sky and see the position, height and speed of nearby aircraft.

The new application works by intercepting the so-called Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcasts (ADS-B) transmitted by most passenger aircraft to a new satellite tracking system that supplements or, in some countries, replaces radar.

Apparently the ADS-B transmits all this information in clear text. If this information can be used to aid terrorists, why is it not encrypted? Don’t blame the developer. Blame the people who built the ADS-B system!!